The Legislative Committee of WISPA has agreed to cosign with the Wireless Innovation Alliance (WIA) on a letter that will be sent to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce of Congress and other interested parties. To give a more effective voice we are asking that WISP's add their name in support to the document. Previous Call to Action requests have actually caused favorable laws to be passed in Congress directly because of WISPA's involvement.
As the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) prepares to set up the TVWS auctions, all unlicensed stakeholders need to restate our needs in this very fluid process. Having Congress understand our needs, helps to give backing from their constituents and coordinates our message to all involved parties. Please read the letter below. To remind how WISPA Call to Action works is we collect your name, title, company name, city and state you are based in. There is no room for additional information for this action so please limit it to the requested data. By signing you agree to be placed on the WIA letter as a supporter and WISPA is also signing on as well. Please fill out the information at the bottom of this letter. This email is set to reply to [email protected] and [email protected]. Please make sure when replying that these addresses are in the To box. Please respond before Friday at Noon Pacific Time. We appreciate you participating, you will likely get more reminders but please only respond once. It is the power of our membership's unification that affects future opportunities for your business and our industry. Thank you! Here is the official letter from WIA: The undersigned companies and organizations commend Congress and the FCC for working to unleash additional spectrum in the current broadcast bands. We are committed to working with all stakeholders on auction rules and a band plan that supports diverse, efficient, and innovative broadband services while protecting broadcast licensees. To accomplish this goal, it is critical that the FCC pursue policies that strike a productive balance between the need for more spectrum that accommodates both exclusive-use licensed and non-exclusive unlicensed technologies. The nation's unlicensed bands are critical to innovation and have generated hundreds of billions of dollars in economic growth. Indeed, a recent study by economist Richard Thanki found that the economic value generated even by a subgroup of unlicensed broadband applications is between $16-$37 billion per year. Throughout 2012, we have seen further evidence of the importance of unlicensed technologies to innovation, job creation, and, most recently, public safety. For example, during the devastating Hurricane Sandy and its aftermath, when many wireless phone networks were overloaded, flooded, or completely offline, Wi-Fi provided access to the Internet for critical news and information (and continues to do so in some areas still recovering). Demand for unlicensed services is growing at a higher rate than either wired or licensed wireless services. Cisco projects that by 2015, IP traffic originated over Wi-Fi networks will surpass traffic originated over wired networks. The number of intelligent connected devices is growing so quickly that it is likely to exceed 100 billion by 2020, potentially generating an economic contribution of $1.4 trillion-five times greater than the Internet today. Technologies using unlicensed spectrum are set to provide over 95% of those machine-to-machine connections. This skyrocketing demand for unlicensed technologies is outstripping the supply of unlicensed spectrum and threatens to soon saturate the core 2.4 GHz band, leaving innovators and consumers with only the high-frequency 5 GHz band. While the 5 GHz band is extremely important, it is not a substitute for lower-frequency spectrum given its limited range due to higher attenuation and, over much of its range, lower power limits and more restrictive technical rules. With additional unlicensed spectrum allocations, the FCC can enable innovators to create tremendous economic value for the country. But if the Commission does not designate more unlicensed spectrum, the fuel for this growth engine will be lost and consumers will face degraded service and slowed innovation. Fortunately, the current television broadcast spectrum presents the FCC with a once-in-a-generation opportunity to begin to address the unlicensed spectrum crunch by making powerful sub-1-GHz unlicensed spectrum available for innovative approaches to broadband access and machine-to-machine services. A well-designed auction will allow the Commission to both free up new licensed spectrum and expand unlicensed spectrum resources. The undersigned companies and organizations therefore urge the FCC to designate an ample amount of spectrum for non-exclusive unlicensed technologies, and urge Congress to allow the FCC to accomplish this task unimpeded. Name: Title: Company: City and State: <http://www.wispa.org/where-there-is-a-wisp-there-is-a-way> Where there is a Wisp, there is a way! Respectfully, Rick Harnish Executive Director WISPA 260-307-4000 cell 866-317-2851 Option 2 WISPA Office Skype: rick.harnish. [email protected] [email protected] (Trina and Rick)
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